


Three Times Accelerator Tried to Apologize to Misaka Mikoto For the Murder of 10,000 Clones of Her, and One Time He Didn't

by NatRoze



Category: Toaru Kagaku no Railgun | A Certain Scientific Railgun, Toaru Majutsu no Index | A Certain Magical Index
Genre: Crack?, Gen, but crackfic taken completely seriously, crackfic, fluff?, fuck if i know let's just say, hurt/comfort?, what the fuck genre is this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-31
Updated: 2013-12-31
Packaged: 2018-01-06 20:30:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1111182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NatRoze/pseuds/NatRoze
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[Why can't he and Railgun both just forget the whole deal? Why can't they just both put it away in a locked metal box in the closet and leave it there forever and forget it ever happened? Accelerator has never been good with words, and remarkably worse with feelings. For the strongest Level Five in the city, a simple apology seems ironically far above his capabilities.]</p><p>pretttty self-explanatory title, but Accelerator makes a solid attempt at being a Decent Human Being and tries to apologize for something for which no words exist to apologize with, and fails spectacularly several times. <br/>Set nebulously somewhere in the time period between Last Order showing up, and volume 15 of the light novels.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three Times Accelerator Tried to Apologize to Misaka Mikoto For the Murder of 10,000 Clones of Her, and One Time He Didn't

**Author's Note:**

> ah yes, another story that's been sitting in onenote for god knows how long that I accidentally discovered while looking for something completely different  
> how about I put it online or somethin
> 
> basically i was unhappy with how New Testament handled these 2 running into each other again.  
> frankly I'm not happy with how I did it; i think it needs more sass because there is so much potential for snark but i'm not rewriting it ok it's like eight months old

It occurs to Accelerator, as he is glaring himself down in the bathroom mirror one evening, that there is a time limit for one to apologize after committing an atrocity before it begins to seem insincere, forced, or forgotten. It occurs to him after significant prodding from Last Order and threats of community service with Anti-Skill from Yomikawa, but it occurs to him nonetheless that he's running out of time to apologize to Misaka Mikoto for killing ten thousand and thirty-one clones of her. He knows he's gotta apologize at some point, because he regrets it and he knows he's done something absolutely _horrible_. He knows he ought to at least make a small attempt at redemption beyond saving the entire MISAKA network by getting shot in the head for Last Order's sake. He knows he's done something terrible to Misaka Mikoto and god damn it, even if he doesn't mean it he should apologize to her.

He wants to mean it.

He's never apologized in his life. This is a little nerve-wracking.

Accelerator stands in front of the bathroom sink and repeatedly splashes cold water on his face.

Why can't he and Railgun both just forget the whole deal? Why can't they just both put it away in a locked metal box in the closet and leave it there forever and forget it ever happened? Accelerator has never been good with words, and remarkably worse with feelings. For the strongest Level Five in the city, a simple apology seems ironically far above his capabilities.

Accelerator makes sure Last Order is asleep, and Yomikawa isn't paying attention to anything but the television, and he sneaks out the door.

After much questioning and jabbing at people with his crutch, Accelerator figures out where the Tokiwadai dorms are. One is in the School Garden, and while he could technically get in if there if he tried, he doesn't want to get arrested. That would impede his progress. The other dorm is within busing distance, and he hopes to all that is good, holy and also willing to forgive heinous crimes that Railgun lives in the off-campus dorm. He almost goes and waits for the bus, but realizes it's after curfew already and no buses will be running.

Accelerator walks all the way across town to the Tokiwadai dorms.

It is past nine at night when Accelerator arrives, frustrated and a little worn-out, at the dorms. The lights are still on in the lobby, and the doors aren't locked. Accelerator wonders if this is because of some kind of protocol, or if students frequently break curfew and they leave the doors open later than usual. Rich girls get it all, he thinks, and pushes the door open.

Accelerator ambles over and examines the wall where all the dorms and their inhabitants are listed. He assumed that they'd have been going in alphabetical order, but upon closer inspection it seems almost entirely random. He moves slowly down the wall, searching for the name MISAKA.

 _God DAMN it_ , he thinks, _would it kill you to make up some kind of electric database of who's in which dorm? Anything easier than this._

"Excuse me," says a sharp, authoritarian voice, and Accelerator feels the bottom of his stomach drop out. "Who are you?"

He stifles a  What's it to you, bitch, and turns to look at the speaker. She's in her late twenties, and the light shines off her glasses in a way that makes her look eyeless and demonic. 

 _Dorm supervisor?_ Accelerator thinks.

"You're not allowed to be here," says Dorm Supervisor.

"Says who?" Accelerator replies.

"Says curfew."

"But I go here," Accelerator lies. "I was heading back to my room."

"Tokiwadai is an all-girls' school," says Dorm Supervisor. Her teeth are gritted. She cracks her knuckles.

 _I will not put this woman through a wall_ , Accelerator tells himself.

"You will remove yourself from the premises or face the immediate consequences," Dorm Supervisor explains slowly.

_I will not put this woman through a wall, I will not put this woman through a wall, I will not-_

"I need to talk to the Railgun-"

Dorm Supervisor puts a hand on Accelerator's shoulder.

 _Not even in self-defense_ , Accelerator thinks, and then Dorm Supervisor puts him in a headlock, cracks his neck to the side and drags him out the front door so fast he doesn't even have time to react.

Accelerator lies on the pavement outside the Tokiwadai dorms. His neck hurts, he's not very happy, and he sort of wants to get back up and put holes through Dorm Supervisor's face. He doesn't, though. He drags himself off the ground and dials up Yomikawa on his cell phone, but she doesn't answer. Accelerator has to walk the entire way back home, and it is raining, and he wasn't able to apologize to Misaka Mikoto.

And that is that.

 

But not quite, really. Accelerator arrives home to a confused and unhappy Yomikawa, who takes it upon herself as a member of Anti-Skill to berate him about breaking curfew. She threatens to send him to school for real, instead of working three hours and lurking the rest. She sends him to bed with the promise of having to do inhumane amounts of chores if he ever does it again.

Accelerator lays in bed and stares at the ceiling for several more hours. He does not sleep that night.

 

It dawns on Accelerator the next morning, after he gets absolutely no sleep (and boy, does it show), that it is a Sunday and Railgun won't have classes. Before Last Order and Yomikawa can wake up and waylay him with inane errands, before Tsuchimikado or Etzali or Musujime can call him in for "work", Accelerator gets dressed and grabs some money off the counter and promptly vacates the premises. He buys himself coffee and yakisoba bread at a convenience store, and gets on the bus. He glowers at the coffee can when he realizes it's fucking decaf, dammit, and makes a mental note to buy some sugar-saturated energy drink out of the first vending machine he passes by.

It is nine in the morning when Accelerator gets to the closest bus stop to the Tokiwadai dorms, and he wonders to himself, _If I were a rich fourteen-year-old level five chick with nothing to do on a Sunday, where would I go?_

He horribly misjudges Misaka Mikoto's character, and pokes his head into a lingerie store.

 _This is what rich girls shop for_ , he thinks. _This and obscene amounts of shoes. Right?_

The clerk asks him if he's shopping for his girlfriend, and Accelerator leaves immediately.

In what Accelerator feels is a stroke of absolute genius, he decides to search the local arcade. If he remembers correctly, Tokiwadai's Railgun is famous for firing metal arcade tokens and using them to conduct her lightning. So if he searches all the arcades within walking distance of Tokiwadai, and ask them if they're missing a good handful of tokens, then he can just stake himself out there and wait for Misaka Mikoto to show up and replenish her arsenal.

He's there for about fifteen minutes when some punk-ass middle school kid asks him if he's really the real Accelerator, like the actual real thing, because if he is, will he maybe play video games with me because if he's real and he's really the best, he must be super good at video games.

Accelerator resists the urge to punt the kid down the block and leaves the arcade.

He checks boutiques. He checks malls. He checks pastry shops and coffee shops and candy shops and the local swimming pool and shoe stores, perfume stores, the library and on a last hope, he walks very quickly by the Tokiwadai dorms, on the other side of the street.

"Where the fuck does this chick hang out?" he asks himself as he flops onto a bench in the local park. He eyes the vending machine nearby, but he can't imagine it containing anything actually drinkable (coffee, for example).

And then a certain brown-haired, shorts-wearing Tokiwadai girl makes a running start at the vending machine and gives it a good, solid kick.

Accelerator stares.

Misaka Mikoto reaches into the vending machine and pulls out an aluminum can that must've been dislodged when she kicked it.

 _This is what Tokiwadai girls do?_ Accelerator boggles. _That's theft. It's illegal._ He almost wants to laugh. At least he actually pays for his coffee addiction.

He pushes himself off the bench and mentally prepares himself to face down Misaka Mikoto, who he can guarantee will not be pleased to see him.

And then a ponytailed girl with a Judgment armband (also in a Tokiwadai uniform) teleports onto the scene and latches onto Misaka's arm.

"Onee-sama!" squeals Judgment girl.

"Kuroko!" Misaka screams. "Don't do that."

"Well, well, Onee-sama. Are you defacing public property again? Not to mention stealing," says Judgment girl. Misaka groans and attempts to shake Judgment girl (Kuroko?) off her arm. Kuroko, for her own sake, must have a grip of steel and hangs on even tighter, and earns herself an electric shock for her trouble.

 _Wow_ , thinks Accelerator. _Railgun's just as nuts as me. Using her powers on her friends…_

And then he thinks, _Wait, if she's got a friend around, she might not attack me indiscriminately._

Accelerator decides that yes, today is the day he will apologize to Misaka Mikoto. And he'll do it with a goddamn witness too, it seems! And even if Misaka doesn't believe his sincerity (he doubts she'll believe his sincerity; he killed ten thousand clones of her), maybe her friend will take his side.

Maybe.

Accelerator gathers what little social acceptability he has and crosses the park. He taps Misaka Mikoto on the shoulder.

"Hey," he says, "can I talk to you for a-"

Misaka screams bloody murder.

"I guess not, then," he mutters under his breath. "Can't even get in a fuckin' apology edgewise."

"What the hell are you doing here? What do you want?" Misaka shouts. Oh no, she's got her little arcade token out. She's chargin' her laser.

"Onee-sama," wonders Kuroko, "Who might this young man be?" She scoots closer to Misaka and latches possessively onto her side, and shoots Accelerator a look that screams something intimidating. He wishes he knew exactly what was being screamed.

Accelerator opens his mouth to inform this girl that he's Accelerator and he'd like to apologize for causing grievous emotional harm to Misaka Mikoto, but Misaka Mikoto beats him to the punch and yanks Kuroko close enough to whisper. And she whispers and she whispers and Kuroko's eyes narrow and they are still _screaming._

Misaka stops whispering. Accelerator wants desperately to know what she said to Kuroko about him.

"Well, well," says Kuroko. She steps in between him and Misaka. "You are a reprehensible excuse for a human being. I don't know the details," she explains, "but it seems like you've committed some unforgivable atrocities. Just what did you do to Onee-sama?" she asks.

"That's just it," says Accelerator. "That's exactly why I'm here.  I was going to-"

"You were going to finish the job and kill me, weren't you?" shrieks Misaka. Accelerator shoots her a look like, what are you, nuts?  and the look he receives in return does not at all match the terrified squeal. The look in Misaka Mikoto's eyes is pure, conniving hatred.

The look in Kuroko's eyes says _I am about to tear you limb from limb._

Power switch, thinks Accelerator, and considers switching to esper mode. However, that would be diplomatic suicide not quite unlike pointing a nuclear missile launcher across the dinner table during a breakup.

Accelerator also considers getting down on his hands and knees and bowing while he begs for forgiveness, but he thinks Misaka might step on his head so he doesn't. Also, it just doesn't feel like him.

He decides to throw his hands up in the air and groan, "Fine, forget I ever came here. It's not like I wanted to make some fucking amends or anything," and leave.

As he's walking away, he feels the air behind him distort and then there's a soft tap on his shoulder. He turns around. Misaka Mikoto is about twenty feet back, arms crossed and a cheshire grin splitting her lips.

Judgment girl Kuroko is directly behind him, and she has large, painful needles in her hands.

"You are under arrest," she says, and Accelerator sees the needles disappear, thinks _teleporter, shit,_ switches on his choker and breaks into a vector-enhanced, sped-up run for safety.

He's dealt with Musujime in a bad mood. He doesn't want to end up with sharp objects stuck inside him. Aside from the physical distress, it would be a pain in the ass to have to explain to Yomikawa why he was dripping blood all over her floors.

And so Accelerator runs through the streets of Academy City, trying to lose this psycho teleporter girl before he runs out of batteries, and eventually ends up hiding inside a trash can down some seedy back alley in a less-than-savory part of town. He thinks, _so this is how far I've fallen_ , and tries to call Yomikawa on his cellphone, see if she can come pick him up. She berates him for not being around for Sunday breakfast and making Last Order worry, and tells him to walk home by himself as punishment. Accelerator has to walk the entire way back home, and he is running out of batteries and hoping to all that is holy and mildly understanding that crazy Judgment Kuroko isn't lurking around the next corner, and he wasn't able to apologize to Misaka Mikoto. Again.

And that is that.

 

Almost.

Accelerator returns home to an overreacting Last Order, who's apparently never woken up to find that Accelerator's vanished again (he's only done it like five times before). He has to contend with "making up for it" by playing inane children's games with her all day. As he deals gracelessly with getting his hair braided at a teddy bear tea party, Accelerator wishes that the original Misaka Mikoto could allow him to make up for what he's done simply by doing something nice for her instead. And just like that, out of thin air he's got a brilliant idea.

Accelerator stays up late and thinks about exactly how he should go about executing this idea. He does not sleep that night.

 

Accelerator is careful to sleep in and allow Last Order to wake him up the next morning. He makes sure to have breakfast with Yomikawa and Yoshikawa (who is staying over for a while again while she attempts to find a job). He double-checks that he's told everyone exactly where he is going, which is to the supermarket to buy something for dinner as a means of atoning for skipping breakfast the day before. And he actually goes to the supermarket. And he actually comes back.

Misaka Mikoto is in school, after all. And unless Accelerator wants to cross-dress (and he does not), he's not getting into the School Garden without an invitation or a fight.

At two in the afternoon, with an hour and a half's time taken into consideration for walking and stops along the way, Accelerator tells Yomikawa that he's gotten a text from Tsuchimikado and that he has a job to do. She doesn't question this, because she decided a few weeks ago that she really would rather not know exactly what his jobs consist of. Detailing assassinations in all their gory detail, as it turns out, is a particularly egregious way to ruin someone's dinner. Accelerator leaves the house and gets on a bus.

He gets off the bus in the shopping district and, steeling his nerves and reminding himself that he's resolved to do this, he pushes open the door to the flower shop.

Flowers and candy. According to television, this is the kind of stuff that placates girls. Extrapolating from there, Accelerator presumes that expensive flowers and expensive candy ought to assist in his attempts to apologize to Railgun.

 _This,_ he thinks to himself, _is going to be the single most humiliating thing I have ever gone through. I swear to god, if this doesn't work, I'm gonna kill som_ ething.

 _No_ , he reminds himself. _I am not going to kill something just because I'm pissed. I have standards now, goddammit._

Accelerator boggles at the ridiculous price of flowers, and eventually decides on lilies. He buys a box of chocolate truffles at the nicest-looking candy shop he sees on the way, and then sits and waits outside the Tokiwadai dorms for Misaka to return. He hopes she comes back to her dorm before wandering around the city. He hopes she has a lot of homework and doesn't have time to play. He hopes he doesn't have to wait long.

Various other middle school girls pass him by. Numerous times he overhears them whispering to each other, "I wonder who he's waiting for?" and "Is he meeting someone for a date?" and "His girlfriend must not be very nice, if she's making him wait this long."

Accelerator resists the urge to rid the planet of teenage girls.

Almost an hour passes, and Accelerator is starting to get _very_ frustrated with Misaka Mikoto. Who the hell does she think she is, going out and having fun and making him wait to fucking atone for his stupidity? She should have some god damn courtesy.

"Holy shit, Accelerator?" yells a familiar, unfortunate voice. Accelerator turns to the speaker and nearly breaks the box of chocolates in half.

It's Kamijou. Kamijou something-or-other who beat him up during the SISTERS project. That fucking asshole.

Accelerator owes him some kind of debt, for quite literally knocking some sense into him, but that's for another day. Right now, he wants to find Railgun and get his shit sorted. Kamijou What's-His-Damage can wait.

Accelerator stands up and prepares to hit Kamijou with the bouquet of lilies.

"W-what are you doing here?" Kamijou manages. "I mean, you're waiting outside the Tokiwadai dorms? Don't tell me you're here for Misaka… wait, what the hell are the flowers for?" he asks. "Wait, are you meeting your girlfriend here? Wait, _you_ have a _girlfriend?"_

"No," says Accelerator, and wallops Kamijou with the flowers, which probably was not a good idea because it damages a few of them quite a bit and rumples the organization of the bouquet. "What the fuck are _you_ doing here?"

"...Going home via the scenic route," Kamijou explains. "What are _you_ doing here? Actually."

"I am waiting for someone."

"Like I said, girlfriend. Wait, you're dating someone from Tokiwadai and Misaka hasn't tried to kill you?"

Accelerator resists the urge to switch into esper mode. He sets down the smashed lilies and the candy box, and grabs Kamijou by the front of his shirt.

"I don't have a girlfriend. I don't want a girlfriend. I am waiting for Misaka Mikoto-"

"What? You're not gonna do something stupid to her, are you? I won't let you-"

"I'm not here to kill her, you unfortunate waste of brain cells!"

"The what the hell are you doing here? And why do you have flowers and candy?" Kamijou smirks. "You look like you're waiting on a date."

Accelerator punches Kamijou in the stomach.

"What the hell's your problem?" Kamijou shouts, and takes a swing at Accelerator.

Accelerator briefly considers taking a martial arts class someday, when he can walk without the crutch, and then Kamijou's punch knocks him flat on his back. The sky stares down at him, judgingly.

As he lays on the ground and debates his options, he overhears some passing Tokiwadai girls say to each other, "Oh, so he wasn't waiting for a girl…" and "Are they having a lovers' quarrel?"

In his mind, Accelerator snaps spines. God forbid, him date Kamijou. God forbid him date anyone, frankly. In real life, he gets up, jabs an accusatory finger in Kamijou's direction and says, "This isn't the end, bastard. One of these days, I'll sort my shit with you. But not right now. I got other problems to consider." And with that he smashes the already broken lilies over Kamijou's head, picks up the candy (who the hell wastes good candy?) and whirls around with every intent of walking away with his dignity intact (and preferably his bones, too).

He runs face-first into Misaka Mikoto, and both of them stumble, stare at each other in shocked confusion, and then scream, "YOU!"

Accelerator says, "I've been looking for you!"

Misaka says nothing. Her eyes jump from Accelerator to the candy to the smashed flowers on Kamijou's head, and she tries very hard not to laugh out loud.

She fails, and bursts into raucous laughter, promptly followed by her ignoring Accelerator entirely to shout at Kamijou about why on earth would he ever get together with a "psycho freak like that" when there's "perfectly good girls" like her around. She sparks and sizzles and glares pointedly, between giggling at the broken flowers and the box of candy.

Accelerator, for the first time in his life, debates giving up for good. He flings his hands up in the air, glares at the sky as if to say,  _really? Seriously?_ And then he drops his arms to his sides and walks home dejectedly.

 

It is three days later when the proverbial shit hits the proverbial fan. Last Order has gone and gotten herself lost, because she is an irresponsible little kid and should not be allowed to breathe without supervision, dammit. Accelerator, despite having uncanny levels of badass under his belt, is still incapable of blanket-searching the entire city in under a day and is forced to employ the assistance of Judgment. He ends up in the 177th branch office, waiting for a middle school girl with her head covered in flowers to find her superior and ask for permission to mobilize Anti-Skills to find Last Order. He is on the couch in the waiting room when, with a frustrated shout of "Kuroko, get your ass out here," Misaka Mikoto bursts through the door.

She freezes. Accelerator's eyes widen.

First of all, Kuroko is not in the building at the moment, or Accelerator would _not_ be in the building. He would be running, in a completely undignified manner, for his life.

Second, the girl covered in flowers has just returned.

"Ah, Misaka-san!" she says sweetly. "Shirai-san isn't in at the moment, but she ought to return soon. I would let you in the office with me, but it's a mess and I'm trying to organize a search, so if you wouldn't mind waiting out here, that would be great."

"Uiharu," says Misaka, addressing the floral girl. "Do you have any idea who that is?" She points accusatively at Accelerator. The way she says that implies Accelerator isn't quite human to her.

"He's a nice young man whose little sister is missing, and I'm trying to organize a group to search the city for her on his behalf," Uiharu explains. Accelerator silently thanks whatever higher power tolerates him for sending down this little floral angel to mediate between himself and Misaka.

"He's Accelerator!" Misaka barks. "The strongest Level Five in the city! He's _dangerous."_

"He's been very polite to me," says Uiharu. "Or at least he's clearly been _trying_ to be polite."

Accelerator shrugs. He had made a very valid attempt to not cuss out the entire 177th branch. He thinks he likes this Uiharu kid's style. She notices things. She's brighter than she looks.

He may just be saying this, though, because she's complimenting him in front of Railgun.

"You don't even know what he did!" Misaka growls, tugging at the ends of her hair in frustration. "Get him out of your office before he kills someone!"

"I'm right here,  you know," Accelerator points out snippily.

The door jingles. All three of them look up as it swings open and a tiny little girl comes in.

"Um, MISAKA is looking for her friend, says Misaka as Misaka scans the room for any listening Judgment officers…"

"Last Order!" Accelerator snaps, standing up and crossing his arms. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Oh! Never mind, MISAKA doesn't need a Judgment officer. But MISAKA wants to know what you're doing here?"

Last Order runs across the room and latches herself onto Accelerator's side.

"Is that the little girl you were looking for?" asks Uiharu. Accelerator nods. Misaka Mikoto gapes.

"You insane little brat," Accelerator complains. "I've been busting my ass trying to find you all day!"

"Really? Asks Misaka as Misaka smiles appreciatively at you!" Last Order grins up at him.

"Um, oh, let me go back and tell them they don't need to form a search committee," says Uiharu. "Hang on, I'll be right back." She vanishes back through the door to the upstairs half of the Judgment office.

Misaka Mikoto's jaw has dropped. She keeps switching her gaze from Accelerator to Last Order as if she's trying and failing to compute what she's seeing.

"What exactly am I looking at here?" she asks eventually, pointing at Last Order. "Is that another of the SISTERS? Why's she with you?"

Accelerator opens his mouth to sneer and tell her it's none of her business, but Last Order interrupts.

"MISAKA is  MISAKA 20001, says Misaka as she explains herself to the original. MISAKA  is the control center for the entire MISAKA network, and is being taken care of by Accelerator, who saved MISAKA's life."

"What the hell are you talking about?" says Misaka Mikoto. "She can't be telling the truth. What'd you do to her?"

"Oh, not much," Accelerator shrugs. He shoots a very angry glare at Misaka Mikoto. _Only sane Level Five, my ass,_ he thinks. She's even less trusting than Accelerator is, he thinks. She isn't going to listen to him try to apologize? Fine. Guilt it is. "I just took a bullet to the head to save her pathetic bratty ass, that's all. Nothing exciting. Not like if I'd let her die, the entire SISTER network would've gone with her. It's not like some fucked-up researcher thought it'd be a brilliant idea to stick a virus in her brain and cause all the SISTERs to go berserk and kill all humans, and it's definitely not like I was the only one who could stop it without destroying this kid. You know, I didn't do that much at all. Just _got my fucking brains blown out_ for the sake of all ten thousand remaining sisters, and now I have to be medically linked into their goddamn network in order to even be able to fucking _walk!"_

Accelerator feels a tug on his sleeve. Last Order is looking melancholically up at him. It occurs to him that he may have been screaming at Misaka.

Misaka, for her own part, is staring silently at him. Her eyes are wide. Her fists are clenched. She clearly doesn't want to believe it.

She looks over at Last Order, because clearly a small child is always a more trustworthy source of sensitive information. "Is that all true?" she asks cautiously. "Did he really?"

Last Order nods. "Accelerator saved MISAKA's life, as well as the lives of the remaining SISTERs, says Misaka as Misaka confirms Accelerator's story."

"Oh," says Misaka. "Oh." She stares down at the floor, at her shoes. She fiddles with the hem of her skirt.

Accelerator takes a deep breath to steady himself and picks his crutch up off the couch. "Come on, Last Order," he sighs. "Let's get home before Yomikawa so she doesn't freak out at me." He takes her by the hand and starts for the door.

As he passes by Misaka Mikoto, she reaches out one arm and blocks his path. Accelerator stops and stares down at her. She looks like she's about to cry.

"Saving ten thousand doesn't make up for killing ten thousand," she tells him. Her voice is breaking. She's pretending she's okay. "You still killed them, and I still saw it, and you tried to kill me too. And I can't forgive that."

"Frankly," he says, "I didn't think you would."

"But you also saved them," she added. "I didn't even know they were in danger. They're my sisters, and I didn't know they were in danger, and you saved them. So… I guess… thanks," she murmurs.

"Don't thank me," Accelerator sighs. "I'm no hero."

"Damn straight you're not," Misaka agrees. "Don't inflate your ego or anything." She pauses, grits her teeth. "Thank you," she says finally, and lowers her arm so he can pass.

Accelerator stares at her, and wonders how Last Order can possibly be genetically identical to this crazy chick.

"You might wanna get out of here, by the way," she adds. "Kuroko just texted me; she's going to be here in a minute." Mikoto smirks.

"Is she your friend from the other day?"

"Which one?"

"The psychotic teleporter who chased me halfway across the city."

"Yep," Misaka groans.

"She shot needles at me."

"Sounds like Kuroko."

"I had to hide in a fucking trash can to escape."  
"Serves you right."

"I despise you."

"Start running, asshole."

**Author's Note:**

> the course of true hate never did run smooth, so to speak.


End file.
